Community Map Makers

Task

In this Grade 1 discipline-based inquiry, students were tasked with creating a community map identifying and describing important features or landmarks within Edgerton.  Students collectively identified the ways in which they and their families belong in our community, recognizing the value of this knowledge and the importance of making this knowledge accessible to families and who are new to our community.  This idea became the hook used to engage students in their learning; it also made the learning purposeful, authentic and engaging for students. The children gradually furthered their understanding of the community of Edgerton by extending their pre-existing knowledge and understanding, developed from years of real-life experiences within the community. Throughout the project, students worked through various sub-tasks including: identifying and describing key features (based on their own personal experiences, reflecting, and considering how this feature or landmark may be of importance to new members of the community), taking photographs, researching in order to fully understand the history of various features or landmarks, as well as locating them on a map. Finally, students compiled all the gathered information on the Google Map to be shared with the Village of Edgerton.